TCS Faces Backlash Over Layoffs: Senior Employee With 14 Years’ Experience Forced to Accept Reduced Severance
Key Takeaways
- TCS employee with 14 years at company and 29 years total experience forced to resign during medical leave
- Offered only 10-month severance package despite alleged promise of 2 years’ compensation
- Labour unions NITES and FITE call layoffs illegal, demand investigation
- TCS workforce dropped to 5,94,314 after cutting 12,000 jobs (2% of workforce)
Tata Consultancy Services is facing severe criticism after reports emerged of a senior employee with 14 years of service being forced to accept a reduced severance package or face termination. The incident occurred while the employee was on approved medical leave awaiting surgery, raising serious questions about the company’s treatment of long-serving staff.
Labour Unions Demand Probe Into TCS Layoffs
The Forum for Information Technology Employees (FITE) has called for a Special Investigation Team to probe what they describe as forced terminations at TCS. According to FITE, the company allegedly pressured employees to resign during medical conditions and failed to deliver on promised compensation packages.
Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) has filed multiple complaints with the Pune Labour Commissioner, labeling the job cuts as illegal. The labour commissioner has subsequently summoned TCS for explanations regarding the termination practices.
Scale of TCS Layoffs and AI-Driven Restructuring
TCS announced multiple rounds of layoffs in 2025 that resulted in approximately 12,000 job losses—representing about 2% of its total workforce. The company’s global employee count dropped to 5,94,314 in Q2 FY2026 as a result of these cuts.
The layoffs are reportedly driven by TCS’s strategic shift toward artificial intelligence and automation. However, the implementation has drawn criticism for allegedly targeting senior employees and those in vulnerable medical situations.
Broader Implications for IT Industry
The TCS layoffs have raised significant questions about employee rights in India’s IT sector. FITE has highlighted concerns about how many employees were actually forced to resign, how many received the compensation TCS publicly claimed, and how many victims were medically vulnerable at the time of termination.
The case has become a focal point for discussions about corporate responsibility toward long-serving employees and the ethical implementation of AI-driven workforce reductions in the technology sector.
